Australian Health Care System
Assessment Task One: Written Assignment – Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia: Professional Guidelines
Briefly explain the role of the following bodies:
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA)
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia is bounded by the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. According to (reference) their role is to “Protect the public, by developing registration standards, professional codes, guidelines and standards for practise.”
http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Registration-and-Endorsement/Endorsements-Notations/Guidelines-on-endorsement-as-a-nurse-practitioner.aspx
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF)
As stated in (reference) “Is the largest union in Australia.” The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation is totally run by nurses and midwives which provide safe patient care and protection of the public according to (reference). This union is seen in every health setting within Australia examples are hospitals, local doctors clinic, community home setting even in rural and remote parts of Australia.
http://anmf.org.au/pages/about-the-anmf
Summarise in your own words each of the following Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Registration Standards and explain how these standards relate to your future practice as an Enrolled Nurse
Registration standard: Continuous Professional Development
Continuous professional development is where Enrolled nurses, Registered nurses and Midwives need to complete a minimum of 20 hours of study or learning material such as completing a research task on a specific topic and presenting it either in written or verbal form, attending workshops or attending a conference is just some ways of gaining those 20 hours over a 12 month period. These professional developments can be face to face, self directed learning, e-learning or simulation.
The importance for an Enrolled nurse to have professional development according to (reference) “Improves and increases an Enrolled Nurses professional ability to meet their agreement for safe practise.” For continuous professional development to reflect your practise, it is wise to set goals so that this helps within your self growth.
http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Codes-Guidelines/Guidelines-cpd.aspx
Registration standard: Criminal History
Criminal history refers to the applicant applying at the NMBA website to declare if they have been charged with an offence, been in prison both in Australia and overseas. As stated in (reference) “AHPRA check for the applicants past criminal history.” This is to ensure the safety of patients and colleagues. If an Enrolled Nurse doesn’t have a criminal history they would be deemed fit to work and wouldn’t have an issue in getting registered but if there was a criminal history this may need to be explained in detail and supporting documents sent to AHPRA for checking.
http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Registration-Standards/Criminal-history.aspx
Registration standard: English Language
It is important for Nurses to have good English language as communication is vital in Nursing. It is imperative spelling of words and the pronunciation of words are correct otherwise if it isn’t the data can be misinterpreted and the end result could be unfortunate.
Registration standard: Professional Indemnity
Professional indemnity is insurance for nurses and midwives. This gives nurses/midwives comfort in knowing that if anything was to happen to the patient that the Enrolled Nurse would be covered in a negligent act, an error that was made such as administering the wrong medication with the wrong dosage.
http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Registration-Standards/Professional-indemnity-insurance-arrangements.aspx
https://hr.buffalostate.edu/professional-development-examples
Registration standard: Recency of Practice
Recency of practise is where the nurse/midwife has applied for their nursing registration and have already had practise within the profession before or during the registration process. According to (reference) “An Enrolled nurse needs to have completed at least 450 hours of training during a 5 year period, will have also needed to complete an assessment for NMBA and have had it approved, as well as supervised work from NMBA. “ This will ensure the Enrolled nursing to have more confidence in themselves as well as knowing all their training and studying is being recognised.
http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Registration-Standards/Recency-of-practice.aspx
Enrolled Nurse Standards for Practice
Enrolled nurses have a set of guidelines, codes and standards which all tie in to form the professional standards at a safe level for practise.
There are ten standards for which Enrolled nurses to abide by. They are;
Functions with the law, policies and procedures – which means the EN fulfils a duty of care at all times.
Nursing practise for rights, confidentiality, dignity and respect – The EN makes sure the patient is the centre of care.
Accepts responsibility for their own actions – EN is to make sure they don’t work outside of their scope of practise and potentially putting patients at risk.
Interpreting information to nursing care – Collecting enough and adequate data to ensure the patient has the correct nursing care plan tailored to their needs.
Working with the RN – To seek assistance when a task may need to more clarifying.
Time management – Providing care to those who cant make their own decisions for their own mental and physical needs, to also prioritise what jobs need to be done when.
Communicating and documentation – Making sure the patient is receiving the correct care.
Nursing care using research evidence – Seeing additional information when required.
Working safely at all times – Reporting any hazards/risks.
Engage with professional development for self growth – To gain more professional knowledge.
http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-standards/enrolled-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx
Part C
Provide a written analysis of the scenario found below, by addressing the following three areas. You need to also include a brief introduction and conclusion.
Describe how you will respond to the scenario using the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s standards and Decision Making Framework.
Reflect on what skills and knowledge you may need to safely perform this procedure, then describe these learning needs
Describe the learning activities (educational, coaching and mentoring opportunities) you will undertake in order to be able to perform this skill successfully in the future.
Scenario
You commenced your new position as a Graduate Enrolled Nurse in a major metropolitan hospital four weeks ago. You are currently working in an acute medical ward and have been asked to change a large, infected wound dressing on the patient’s abdomen. You have not performed or witnessed this skill since you undertook it in the simulated environment of the Integrated Skills Lab class at Holmesglen.
The Graduate Enrolled Nurse technically is allowed to perform the task of changing a wound dressing because it is in their scope of practise however due to the fact they haven’t performed nor witnessed the skill since completing the skill in the simulated environment at school it would be deemed unsafe.
According to (reference) “ There are five principles of assessment when assessing for practise standards for an Enrolled nurse.” Principle of accountability; “The assessor assessing the EN is making sure they are competent in the standards of practise, so that they can be registered” as stated by (reference). Principle based assessment; Making sure the EN interacts with the patient receiving care and the context of assessment is a component in the standards framework” as mentioned by (reference). Principle of validity and reliability in assessment; “The effectiveness of the assessment process meets the required outcome. The EN knows exactly how to provide evidence to marry up with the judgements they have made on the nursing care.” As stated in (reference). Principle of participation and collaboration; “When the EN is performing a clinical task their communication and how they complete the task is with high standard.” As mentioned by (reference). With all of these five components the Graduate Enrolled Nurse will be able to perform the wound dressing care but only when the assessor has assessed based on these components.
http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Frameworks.aspx
As stated in (reference) “Clinician needs to choose the appropriate wound care dressing for the patient.” Once the correct wound dressing is chosen, the nurse would need to perform hand hygiene and put on the correct personal protective equipment such as gloves. The nurse can now change the dressing safely. Before and during the process of changing the dressing the nurse would need to analyse the wound site to see if there is any changes to the skin and if there is any possible infection to the affected area.
Tabbners page 603
The Graduate Enrolled Nurse can attend conferences, meetings, seminars to help improve the wound dressing care. There is an organisation wounds Australia who run different seminars on wound care. As stated (reference) “The aim of the program is to provide clinical information on what would be the best care for the wound management. This is determined by completing an assessment, pathophysiology and evaluation.” This would be beneficial for the EN to attend so that they can refresh their training.
http://www.woundsaustralia.com.au/pages/courses.php
In conclusion the Graduate Enrolled Nurse will need to attend the seminars and meetings, to also have an assessor monitor there every move in the clinical areas they are not deemed safe in to make sure they are competent and the patient safety is the main focus of every move of the EN.